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The activation of contextually predictable words in syntactically illegal positions
Michael G Cutter1, Andrea E Martin2,3, Patrick Sturt4
1School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (2006)
|February 21, 2020
Summary
Predictable words are more likely to be skipped during reading, even when they appear in grammatically incorrect sentence positions. This eye-tracking study reveals prediction effects in language processing.
Area of Science:
- Psycholinguistics
- Cognitive Science
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Theories of language processing suggest that readers predict upcoming words.
- Predictability influences how readers process words, but its effect in syntactically illegal contexts is debated.
- Lexical prediction models aim to explain how word expectations impact reading behavior.
Purpose of the Study:
- To test whether predictable words are skipped more than unpredictable words, even in syntactically illegal positions.
- To investigate the role of lexical prediction in eye-tracking during reading.
- To compare predictability effects in legal versus illegal syntactic structures.
Main Methods:
- An eye-tracking experiment using the boundary paradigm was conducted.
- Participants read sentences with predictable or unpredictable target nouns in legal and illegal positions.
- A Bayesian linear-mixed model analyzed skipping patterns based on word predictability and syntactic legality.
Main Results:
- A 5.7% predictability effect on noun skipping was observed in syntactically legal positions.
- A 3.1% predictability effect on noun skipping was found in syntactically illegal positions.
- Predictable words were skipped more frequently than unpredictable words across both legal and illegal contexts.
Conclusions:
- Findings support theories suggesting that lexical prediction influences reading behavior, even when encountering grammatical errors.
- The study demonstrates that word predictability affects skipping patterns in both syntactically correct and incorrect sentence structures.
- Results contribute to understanding the mechanisms of predictive processing in language comprehension.
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